~ Living the Dream

Sea Glass

Today was yet another beautiful sunny day in paradise, our second here in Hopetown Harbor, the sky clear and blue with only a few scattered white clouds. The boats tugging at their moorings were surrounded by water in those familiar shades of green and blue, depending on how the bottom lying underneath reflected the sun. The air feels clean, washed by the winds off of the sea.

All of the morning and some of the afternoon hours were taken up with an essential but very messy project, one where I had to disassemble Electro Scan™, the sewage treatment system that services the forward head, to replace the electrical plates that are central to its treatment process. Electric current causes the plates to change sea water into a biocide that renders the sewage harmless enough to pump overboard, which is probably more than anyone wanted to know.

I completed my final check that the unit and all its wiring were correctly and snuggly back in place and made sure that no parts were lying about that had been removed but not reinstalled. I have begun the practice of taking a picture of a new system before I start disassembling it to have something to check against when I put it back together; a lesson born of experience. With fingers crossed and eyes closed, I pushed the button to light the system off and run it through the treatment cycle, hoping that this solution would actually be the solution to this problem. Yea, it works!!

Almost as if on cue, as I begun cleaning up (really cleaning up) the mess from the poop machine project, I heard a familiar squeal from Carrie in the cockpit that signaled that we must have visitors approaching. That would be another welcomed first on this trip; our friends John and Jennifer from S/V Lady J stopping by spontaneously to say hello and chat.

Carrie welcomed them into the cockpit, apologizing for what was left of the mess from our project work, and I laughingly offered an elbow to touch instead of shaking hands as I described for them what I’d been working on. It turns out there was at least one other successful project in the harbor today as John boasted of his now-fully operational onboard generator and the path it took to get it there. The cuts on his hands reminded me that I’m not alone in having things onboard in tight places that need fixing.

We made plans to meet on the public dock later in the afternoon, and along with our friends Bill and Maureen (collectively known as “BeMo”) from M/V Sweet Freedom, we walked along the beach on the Atlantic shore of the island as the sun set behind the dunes, talking and laughing and looking idly for Sea Glass along the shoreline. Sea Glass are small pieces of colored glass broken from bottles somewhere out there and then blasted smooth over time by the churning waves and sand before being washed up on the shore. Jenn has been making beautiful jewelry combining the Sea Glass with little nautical ornaments, but they also make nice decorations and reminders of good times.

We finished up the evening at a local wine bar where we had a glass of wine and continued telling stories and laughing, something that never seems to get old.

Good times; we’re two for two since arriving in Hopetown, and still left wanting for more. Days like this make projects like the poop machine sufferable.